News Spectrum

Jun 01, 2012

By Spectroscopy Editors

Spectroscopy

Volume 27, Issue 6

Using CARS Microspectroscopy to Diagnose Breast Cancer

Jang Hyuk Lee and a team of scientists at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (Gwangju, Korea) have published new research that describes the potential for fast, inexpensive diagnosis of breast and other cancer cells using advanced coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microspectroscopy.

Noting that current techniques used for breast cancer diagnoses, such as mammography and ultrasonography, have low resolution and are costly, the paper says that there is a strong demand for early detection techniques that allow for noninvasiveness, high resolution, high sensitivity, and low cost.

The team demonstrated a CARS system using a homemade single femtosecond laser with a photonic crystal fiber applied to live human breast cancer cells. Using their system, they were able to distinguish between normal and breast cancer cells. The team concluded that the system has potential as a tool for the fast detection of breast and other types of cancer.

The paper, "Rapid Diagnosis of Breast Cancer Cell with Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering Microspectroscopy," was presented at CLEO, the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, in San Jose, California.

Also contributing to the research were Ally Yoon, San-Mo Shin, Myoung-Kyu Oh, and Do-Kyeong Ko.

New Research Confirms the Practical Applicability of Absorption Mode in FT-ICR Mass Spectrometry

In a new study, scientists at the University of Warwick (Coventry, UK) present the results of the analysis of petroleum and protein samples to demonstrate the applicability of the absorption mode in Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) to routine experiments.

The new study follows two papers published last year by the same team, led by Prof. Peter B. O'Connor. Those papers explained that the resolving power of FT-ICR-MS could be enhanced by up to a factor of two by phasing the raw data accurately and plotting them in the pure absorption mode, which had been a problem for almost 40 years.

Through the analysis of crude oil and top-down protein spectra, the new study provides empirical evidence confirming that the absorption mode, in addition to improving the resolving power compared to the conventional magnitude mode, improves the signal-to-noise ratio of a spectrum by 1.4-fold and can improve the mass accuracy up to twofold, throughout the entire m/z range, without any additional cost in instrumentation.

The paper, "Absorption-Mode: The Next Generation of Fourier-Transform Mass Spectra," was published in the March 20, 2012, issue of Analytical Chemistry.